Student Council loses dispute on board grant

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Linda van der Nat

The Dutch national arbitration board came down on the side of the university’s board in the discussion about the FOS allowance for students serving on student organization boards. This means that students serving on boards will now receive a grant of 320 euros per month, rather than the 370 euros the Student Council had asked for. And there will be no public transport allowance for second-year Social Sciences Master’s students.

In its verdict, published last week, the arbitration board says it has given the boards of institutions the right to ‘decide on the disputed elements of the Student Financial Support Fund’. According to executive board spokesperson Simon Vink, this means ‘no more and no less’ than that the university can implement its decision – unless the Student Council appeals.’

The Student Council is disappointed. ‘We invested a lot of energy in this, so this is not the ideal result,’ says council member Marieke Kil (VeSte).

The board agrees with us that a public transport allowance for Social Sciences Master’s students would be reasonable. As for the size of the board grant, they thought the university’s arguments were more reasonable.’ In the end this led to overall agreement with the board’s plans, including those regarding public transport. ‘We are now going to discuss among ourselves and with our lawyer how to respond to this verdict.’